美国有线新闻 CNN SpaceX猎鹰9号火箭爆炸 G20峰会在杭州召开

 

Two stories out of the U.S. state of Florida lead things off.

First, a setback¹ for SpaceX. It's a private space exploration company that has a contract from NASA, and one of its Falcon² IX rockets blew up during a test-firing in Cape³ Canaveral yesterday. It was an unmanned vehicle. No one was hurt. But the rocket and its payload were destroyed and that included a communication satellite intended to help bring Internet service to the Middle East and parts of Africa and Europe.

SpaceX says an anomaly on the launch pad caused the explosion. The company has had a handful of failures and a string of successes over the years, and NASA says it's still confident in its commercial partners, which include SpaceX.

Next, all eyes on Hermine. That's a storm that was spinning in the Gulf⁴ of Mexico last night and headed toward northwest Florida. Hours before it was expected to make landfall, forecasters said Hermine had strengthened to a category one hurricane.

Hermine had dangerous, potentially damaging winds and threatened to push ashore⁵, a storm surge, a wall of water of between one and eight feet.

Florida's governor called Hermine life-threatening and put thousands of National Guardsmen on alert to help with rescue and recovery.

Leaders from around the world are making travel plans.

Where? To Hangzhou, China, the country that's currently president of the G20.

What? The G20 stands for Group of 20. It's gearing up for its annual meeting.

Why? To discuss global economic issues and how to cooperate to address them.

When? This year's event will be held Sunday and Monday.

Who? Heads of state from Argentina to Australia, from Europe to the U.S., from South Korea to South Africa. They represent almost 90 percent of the global economy and two-thirds of its population.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The G20 isn't a group of 20 at all. It's actually 19 countries, plus the European Union and often an assortment⁶ of guest countries invited along.

The idea begun in the late '90s, when the Asian financial crisis rocked global markets.

The first G20 was held in Berlin, in 1999, and consisted of finance ministers and central bank heads.

Then, almost a decade later, the world faced a far greater challenge, the subprime crisis triggered a near total financial collapse⁷. Fear was palpable. The G20 was turbocharged. Heads of government from member nations were called to action and met at crisis meetings in Washington, London, and Pittsburgh.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: For a brief flicker⁸ of a moment, the world was experiencing such incredible instability, the worst recession that we've seen since the Great Depression that everyone wanted to at least tell the public that there was a legal of agreement.

QUEST: During the financial crisis, the G20 leadership pledged about a trillion dollars in new stimulus⁹. That goal was roughly met. But other proposals went nowhere.

ROBERT KAHN, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: You have to be honest and say that it's a pretty poor grade over the last several years in terms of delivering on these commitments that they've made. It is that countries meeting together, get that practice of working on problems, and so, should we have a major crisis again, that infrastructure¹⁰ will be in place and ready to be utilized¹¹.

1 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

2 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

3 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

4 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

5 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

6 assortment   

n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集

参考例句：

• This shop has a good assortment of goods to choose from.该店各色货物俱全，任君选择。
• She was wearing an odd assortment of clothes.她穿着奇装异服。

7 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

8 flicker   

vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现

参考例句：

• There was a flicker of lights coming from the abandoned house.这所废弃的房屋中有灯光闪烁。
• At first,the flame may be a small flicker,barely shining.开始时，光辉可能是微弱地忽隐忽现，几乎并不灿烂。

9 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

10 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

11 utilized   

v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the19th century waterpower was widely utilized to generate electricity. 在19世纪人们大规模使用水力来发电。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The empty building can be utilized for city storage. 可以利用那栋空建筑物作城市的仓库。 来自《简明英汉词典》